The present invention relates to identification or trail lights, and more particularly, to a trail marker light operable principally with an on/off switch and, secondarily, with a light sensitive photocell for energizing an efficient, long-lasting light emitting diode (LED) and capable of attachment to various surfaces such as by a pin or tack, adhesives or Velcro® hook and loop material.
Human beings have two types of nerve cells associated with their eyes. Cones are present and readily differentiate color to the human being. Rods are also in the human eye and generally detect black and white and are more suitable for night vision. Thus, while humans are capable of discerning brilliant colors, they often have difficulty in navigating under low light or night conditions.
Wildlife such as deer, bear, elk and other wild big game, have many more rods than human beings, and almost totally lack red cones and have some blue cones. Hence, wildlife have very limited color vision. They may observe shades of yellow and blue, which they see very well. Thus, it is generally considered that wildlife are colorblind. That is, shades of green, yellow, orange, red, brown, or almost everything else will be seen as shades of yellows while they will see shades of blue very well. The presence of the large number of blue cones and a great number of rods make most wildlife nocturnal animals. Wildlife also lack ultra-violet filters and, hence are thousands of times more sensitive to blue and ultra-violate wavelengths than human beings. This makes wildlife particularly adept to move around in the darkness, seeing shades of blue and yellow, in addition to black and white, and also being able to see ultra-violet, quite unlike human beings. Because wildlife are generally considered colorblind or have dichromatic vision, they have heightened visual sensitivity to movement, especially in low light.
With this background, it is especially difficult for humans to move around and hunt in darkness or low light conditions in the wilderness. This problem is especially acute in that wildlife can readily see, while in the darkness, and have great visual sensitivity to human movement. This is a great preservation characteristic of wildlife.
Humans in the past have moved about in the woods and in nature in darkness with the use of flashlights. Flashlights can be used to guide a human along a trail or be utilized for creating reflections off of certain objects or trail markers to guide the human through the darkness, which is the normal habitat of wildlife. However, the movement of light beams from flashlights are readily discerned by wildlife, gives up the position of humans to the wildlife and alerts them to the potential danger.
There is a need for a highly efficient, long-lasting trail light that is not readily discernable to wildlife and may be easily fixed to naturally occurring objects in the wildlife, such as tree trunks, twigs and bushes. Such a trail light should be efficient and not be operating and wasting energy during the daylight hours but only should come on after daylight is gone and night has set in. Such a light should be readily adaptable for other uses by securing to other objects with readily known adhesives.